Pose a problem related to your work environment that would be appropriate for qu
ID: 442220 • Letter: P
Question
Pose a problem related to your work environment that would be appropriate for qualitative research, and determine the most appropriate qualitative method.Explain briefly why would you use that technique.
Suppose you want to use a focus group for the problem you described above. Briefly answer the following:
What is the geographical spread of your potential participants?
Are there any specific inclusion criteria for selecting participants? Is so, briefly explain the criteria.
Where or how could you obtain a list of potential participants?
Are there preexisting groups and what are the advantages and disadvantages of using those groups?
Explanation / Answer
At the work environment, qualitative research can be used to analyze the effect of cultural background on the communication gap and improper workplace behavior of employees. There are several methods for performing the qualitative research work including participant observation, in-depth interview and focus groups.
Focus group method should be utilized to address the problem, because these would be effective in eliciting data on the cultural norms of a group. Furthermore, it would also help in generating broad overviews of issues regarding the cultural gaps.
a.
The company should include participants from different geographical locations at which the company is operating.
b.
Representative of each cultural group that is present in the organization should be selected. The participants should have sufficient knowledge, skills, and experiences. Besides this, they should be open to a healthy conversation.
c.
The list of potential participants could be obtained from the managers or supervisors as they have better information regarding the employees.
d.
Preexisting groups have several advantages as well as disadvantages. Preexisting groups could not provide innovative ideas or solutions. They would stick to their previous agendas. Besides this, members of the preexisting groups might have some dominant person who could restrict open communication among the participants. Although, focus group has certain advantages, for example, they understand the method well. Hence, they would perform a healthy discussion. Hence, effectiveness of pre-existing focus groups is high as compared to the newly formed groups.